A former editorial colleague who did volunteer work at a local homeless shelter for families was talking with a family when the mother asked her what she did. She replied that she was an editor of religious children’s resources. The woman softly said, “I once wrote Bible story papers for children.” The woman explained that her family had fallen on hard times and that her husband was trying to find a job.

As my former colleague related the experience to us, it brought tears to some eyes and made all of us aware in our hearts what we already knew in our heads. Homeless persons are not invisible people who appear at a shelter only to become invisible when they depart. To be sure, they have their problems; but homeless people also have names, feelings, gifts, and skills—and they have faces!

Those faces are special because Jesus has “put a face” on them, a face that does not deny their identity but gives them a greater identity. Jesus also “put a face” on those who are hungry, those who are thirsty, those who are strangers, those who are naked, those who are sick, and those who are in prison. As we shall see, the face he puts on them is his own.